91¶ÌÊÓƵ

Kurt Forsyth, MHA 

Kurt Forsyth has found his happy place. It’s out in rural Utah, where he serves as an administrator for Intermountain Healthcare’s Delta and Fillmore Community Hospitals. 

For nearly two years, he’s been enjoying that post and the perks that come with it: knowing all of his employees’ names, being deeply engaged with the community, and rubbing shoulders with the locals. 

“Some of us like the office in the corner,” he said. “I like the office in the front so I can see people as they come past me.”  Now a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives, Forsyth has come a long way from his origins in marketing and business administration, where he was once focused on retail. 

“I looked ahead to my retirement, and I said, I don’t want to be in sales for another 45 years,” he said. 

At the time, his wife had been a medical assistant, and she urged him to talk to her former boss. He did, then he talked more people in the healthcare industry, and more still. He decided early on that he wanted to be a hospital CEO. The message was often the same: Unless you have a background or education in healthcare, it’s difficult to get into healthcare. 

Forsyth joined Weber State’s MHA program, and it began to pay off long before he graduated. Through the program, he found a connection to an internship at Intermountain Medical Group in the first few months. His enrollment in the program and internship, coupled with his previously developed business acumen, landed him a full-time job as the manager of Davis Hospital’s Hyperbaric & Wound Care Center. 

Forsyth graduated in 2012 and has since fulfilled various healthcare administration roles, but he found he most enjoyed the smaller rural hospitals. Thanks to the connections and professional expertise in 91¶ÌÊÓƵ’s CAHME-accredited MHA program, he found his way, he said.

“Essentially, I am where I want to be.”